While I was in San Francisco yesterday, I spent some time shooting in the city with my friend Emilio. I was walking down Market Street when I spotted this dapper fellow making images with a small Canon camera. He was making images of a postal worker.

I struck up a conversation with him to discover that he had been photographing in this area for quite a long time and as people passed by, it seemed like he was familiar with a lot of them and they him. Visiting his website afterwards, I realized that he had accumulated a large body of work.

But what really impressed me was the wonderful energy he brought to the street. A lot of street photographers can be very earnest about their work, but he seemed to be having a lot of fun. He was really having a ball being out there in the street getting his shots. And the fact that he was doing it with such a stylus ensemble of hat, tie and shoes really impressed me.

As I told Emilio later, I could only hope that I had that much energy and enthusiasm thirty years from now.

I meet a lot of photographers on the street, but Maury definitely left me inspired.